Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Motivated by the suspension of famous Spanish writer Javier Marias' blog because of license infringement, I searched the web and found the following comparison of licenses to stay on the safe side when reusing, mentioning or modifying content found on the web.
The infringement was reported by Michael Magras: part of a post from his blog was copied in Marias' blog without acknowledging the authorship. This resulted in a claim to Wordpress blogging platform and consequent suspension of the blog.

All the three licenses have something in common: they all deal with author's rights. They just differs in the way they protect them. Let's get down to business.

Copyright

This is the most popular license, and unfortunately it's the most used one. It allows full rights to the owner of the work (that may not be the very author), and he's the only one that may decide what to do with it, whether to charge for it or not, besides having to request permission for usage. Distribution is only restricted to the owner of the creation, that means the license only allows possession but not distribution. This is usually applied to books, music, movies and software, as an example.

Tuesday, May 6, 2014

There's a lot of buzz around meditation, and for those who are not into that, it sounds a bit like a mysterious way to achieve who knows what. Enlightenment, peace of senses, eternal pleasure or visits to other dimensions?

This is not exactly like that, but benefits that people receive by practicing meditation are tangible and immediate. Mind relaxation, better concentration and improved consciousness of oneself. The good thing is that everybody can meditate and no special preparation is needed nor a special place or time of the day.
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Try this simple meditation technique to learn more about you

So let's dive into this fascinating world of meditation with one simple yet effective technique, it may be your first meditation ever. Follow these simple steps.

Sit down comfortably on the ground, on a sofa or even lay down on your bed. Once you feel comfortable with your position, you are ready to start. Otherwise, make sure you make all the adjustments until you feel fine. There are precise meditation postures, but to get into the technique, you don't need to master them. Just make sure you feel good. An uncomfortable posture may distract you from what's next.

Close your eyes. Bring attention to the tip of your nose and observe the
air flowing through it: observe the flow of air when inhaling and
observe it again when exhaling. Feel the air in your nostrils when you
inspire. Feel the air in your nostrils and on the tip of the upper lip
when you exhale. That's it. Remember you are just observing your breath,
you don't need to change the pace of your breathing. Just observe.

Observe your breath during 10 minutes. If you think previous step was
easy, here comes the essential motivation of this method. Try, at
least, to extend breath observation for some minutes, up to 10. Purpose
is not getting distracted by other thoughts.
That's all. Now let's discuss all the implications of this simple yet powerful method.

The purpose of this technique, known as Anapanasati yoga, is to enhance consciousness of yourself. Your thoughts wander throughout all the day randomly, you can't do much to control them. Your thoughts will drift, and so they'll do during this simple breath observation technique. But don't worry, this is a challenge that's part of the exercise. Just make sure you realize you jumped to other thoughts, to your family, your duties and obligations.

Don't feel guilty for that, but once you notice you have abandoned the practice, go back to it, go back to breath observation.
Don't expect things will happen. Keep expectation low. Just consider the way you feel once the session is over.
Once you are used to this practice, don't wait for the perfect moment for it. Every moment of the day and in any place it's perfect. In the bus, while waiting the subway... these are perfect places for Anapanasati yoga. You don't even need to keep you eyes opened. You can even observe your breath while walking in the street, this method won't take consciousness away from what's happening around you. And why not, try that for some minutes in front of your computer at work. Nobody will notice that!

This meditation is explained in its simplest form, there are lots of things one may do to complicate these few steps. But let's keep it simple, not for being simple it is less effective. Once you master this meditation, beautiful things will happen and you will be ready for the next step.